Rotations - what angle do you use?

[Jozvex]

*prays Goosh doesn't suck my blood*

Why would it make a difference?

[bentllama]

It depends if I am animating a character for a "Z-up" game environment...
or animating them for pre-rendered or "non-Z-up" purposes...

...either way, I usually use X down the joint

keeping it the same accross the board helps me automate my rigging, share scripts, retarget animation easily between different skeletons, read similar acting function curves easily between characters...etc...

sometimes my anim skel and bound skel will differ in joint orientation, but that depends on the character and the amount of detail in my bound skel...but i keep my anim skels the same for resaons outlined above...

:beer:

[goosh]

Originally posted by Jozvex
[B
Why would it make a difference? [/B]

No difference really.. just wondering what people used.

I set up a character the other day and one of the guys went.. wow... all the rotations are weird.. I'm used to X being up..

I've been setting up all my characters with Z up (or down) and I'm used to it that way... but that's why I was wondering if there was a way people preffer.. makes no difference to me... and it would be easy to change to work in any other way..

As a TD you want to make it as easy as possible to everybody

Goosh

[Jozvex]

Ahh ok,

[jschleifer]

I usually use Y along the joint, and Z for either up or down depending on whichever way the joint is facing, in order to keep the joints rotating in a consistant fashion..

for example, if I have a leg joint, then I'll orient the thigh with Z-Up, the Knee with Z-Down, the ankle with Z-up and the ball of the foot with Z-up. That way when I grab the thigh and knee and rotate it, both joints will rotate in the same direction.

whee! :)
-jason

[goosh]

Hey Jason

I thought you were missing in action or something...

Yeah... I know YOU do it that way :) ... specially since I use your jsOrientJoint script :P

But that's why when I set up one of my characters and some people saw them they didn't know why things were rotating around angles that they weren't used to... Maybe they are just weird ;) or they have been using one way and they were taken back a little that things would rotate on another angle...

That's why I was checking to make sure.

Oh.. changing the rotation orden finally sank on me!! Now I see how important it is :)

Be good evebody

Goosh

[ed209]

You would probably get a better response for your question in the rigging forum. Personally as an animator I don't give that much thought unless something goes screwy with the rig. That's what TD's are for =)

[bentllama]

Originally posted by jschleifer
I usually use Y along the joint, and Z for either up or down depending on whichever way the joint is facing, in order to keep the joints rotating in a consistant fashion..

for example, if I have a leg joint, then I'll orient the thigh with Z-Up, the Knee with Z-Down, the ankle with Z-up and the ball of the foot with Z-up. That way when I grab the thigh and knee and rotate it, both joints will rotate in the same direction.

whee! :)
-jason

makes sense. i got accustomed to using X down the joint since that is the way it has been done since the dawn of time :) [and most game engines did it that way, and past programmers were lazy and wouldnt change the way the engine handled joints]
i got used to reading the motion from the F curves and taking for granted the fact that every joint rotated about in the same manner. maybe i got too complacent seeing as I rarely animate on the skeleton itself, instead always having nsome kind of control rig, IK or FK, handle the action.

thanksfully now, I have an amazing engine to work with and am not limited my much at all. :)

thanks for the input Jason. good to see you back. :)

[jschleifer]

Yah, the only reason I use Y down the joint is 'cuz that's what was being done at Weta when I got there. I got used to it, so that's what I'm doin. :)

good to be back.. I've been mia for a bit, trying to learn XSI <gasp>, and trying to get up to speed with the new job 'n all. Should be able to be back in the forums a BIT more over the next weeee while. :)

-jas

[bentllama]

Y down the joint also happens to be the way alot of mocap houses [and apps] prefer to solve motion to...

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